External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday termed the meeting of the UPA-Left panel on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal as constructive.
New Delhi, Sept 19 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday termed the meeting of the UPA-Left panel on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal as "constructive".
Mukherjee, who heads the UPA-Left panel to resolve the issues over the nuclear deal, at the end of the meeting said that the "discussions were constructive" and that talks would continue.
Both sides put forth their views and agreed that the committee would meet again on October 5 to iron out differences over the deal, he said.
Meanwhile, Congress has expressed confidence that the differences with the allies will be resolved.
"As far as the dispute itself is concerned, we in the Congress are very sure that all differences will be sorted out within the framework of the set-up (UPA-Left committee)," Congress Spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said.
"The party is confident that the government will take every step to bring all the allies on board," Natarajan added.
Earlier today, the Left parties alleged that the United States was pressurising India to go ahead with the bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation deal.
"I feel it is they (the US), who are laying down the timetable for the government, it seems to us. They are pressurising; you know it very well," said CPI leader A B Bardhan.
The Left parties also rejected the government's response to the concerns expressed by them over the nuclear deal, saying they were not convinced with the Centre's contention on the issue.
"We are not convinced with even a single contention of the government," Bardhan told reporters after an over 90-minute meeting of the Left leaders.
"It is a lawyers' contention," he added.
"We have rebuffed, refuted whatever the government has said," Bardhan said.
The government had earlier submitted its reply to a five-page note of the Left's objections on the deal.
The UPA-Left committee set up to resolve the differences over the nuclear deal held its first meeting on September 11, with the members outlining the agenda for the discussion. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that broad issues for the ongoing discussions were framed in the meeting.
The committee framed the issue following broad issues for discussion, implications of the Hyde Act on Indo-nuclear 123 Agreement and on the self-reliance in the nuclear sector, implications on foreign policy and security cooperation.
The 15-member panel, which is headed by Mukherjee, comprises of Union Cabinet Ministers, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad, T R Baalu and Sharad Pawar; and six Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Debabrata Biswas and T J Chandrachoodan.
The panel was named after Left, which provides crucial support to the UPA Government, rejected the bilateral nuclear deal with the US, and warned the Government of serious consequences if it went ahead with operationalising the Agreement.
The Government had said that the agreement will be operationalised after taking into account the committee's findings.
ANI